Aligning the Global Delta Risk Index with SDG and SFDRR global frameworks to assess risk to socio-ecological systems in river deltas.

Unlabelled: River deltas globally are highly exposed and vulnerable to natural hazards and are often over-exploited landforms. The Global Delta Risk Index (GDRI) was developed to assess multi-hazard risk in river deltas and support decision-making in risk reduction interventions in delta regions. Disasters have significant impacts on the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Impact of Ashwagandha on Stress, Sleep Quality, and Food Cravings in College Students: Quantitative Analysis of a Double-Blind Randomized Control Trial.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of ashwagandha (ASH) () on sleep, perceived stress, and cravings in a college student population. Sixty healthy students were screened/enrolled into a 30-day double-blinded placebo (PLA)-controlled intervention (700 mg daily, full spectrum extract of ASH root). Anthropometrics, demographics, and validated questionnaires assessing physical activity, restorative sleep, perceived stress, and food cravings were assessed before and after the study.

The Perceived Impact of Ashwagandha on Stress, Sleep Quality, Energy, and Mental Clarity for College Students: Qualitative Analysis of a Double-Blind Randomized Control Trial.

Stress, anxiety, and depression, along with feeling overwhelmed and exhausted have been widely reported by college students as factors that negatively impact their academic performance, and overall well-being. Ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herb that has been used historically to support healthy responses to stressors, but has recently gained popularity in the United States for its ability to support well-being for populations who experience chronic stress. To our knowledge, there have not been any human trials evaluating the efficacy of ashwagandha on stress in the United States.

Bioactive Peptides from Algae: Traditional and Novel Generation Strategies, Structure-Function Relationships, and Bioinformatics as Predictive Tools for Bioactivity.

Over the last decade, algae have been explored as alternative and sustainable protein sources for a balanced diet and more recently, as a potential source of algal-derived bioactive peptides with potential health benefits. This review will focus on the emerging processes for the generation and isolation of bioactive peptides or cryptides from algae, including: (1) pre-treatments of algae for the extraction of protein by physical and biochemical methods; and (2) methods for the generation of bioactive including enzymatic hydrolysis and other emerging methods. To date, the main biological properties of the peptides identified from algae, including anti-hypertensive, antioxidant and anti-proliferative/cytotoxic effects (for this review, anti-proliferative/cytotoxic will be referred to by the term anti-cancer), assayed in vitro and/or in vivo, will also be summarized emphasizing the structure-function relationship and mechanism of action of these peptides.

The Prevalence and Genetic Diversity of in Nymphs Collected from Farm- and Woodland Sites in Ireland.

The parasite, causes redwater fever in cattle and a rare, albeit life-threatening disease in humans. In Ireland, has always been considered an important pathogen as the high incidence of redwater fever precluded areas of the country from cattle farming. Moreover a relatively large proportion of human cases were reported here.

A pilot study on the prevalence of lice in Irish beef cattle and the first Irish report of deltamethrin tolerance in Bovicola bovis.

Background: Pediculosis in cattle causes significant itching, irritation and stress to the animal, often resulting in skin damage and poor coat condition. The control of bovine pediculosis in Ireland is based predominantly on commercial insecticides belonging to one of two chemical classes, the synthetic pyrethroids and the macrocyclic lactones. In recent years, pyrethroid tolerance has been reported in a number of species of livestock lice in the United Kingdom and Australia.

One-Shot 3D-Printed Multimaterial Soft Robotic Jamming Grippers.

Soft gripping provides the potential for high performance in challenging tasks through morphological computing; however, design explorations are limited by a combination of a difficulty in generating useful models and use of laborious fabrication techniques. We focus on a class of grippers based on granular jamming that are particularly difficult to model and introduce a "one shot" technique that exploits multimaterial three-dimensional (3D) printing to create entire grippers, including membrane and grains, in a single print run. This technique fully supports the de facto physical generate-and-test methodology used for this class of grippers, as entire design iterations can be fitted onto a single print bed and fabricated from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) files in a matter of hours.

Update on the presence of Ixodes ricinus at the western limit of its range and the prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato.

It is often suggested that due to climate and environmental policy changes, the risk from tick-borne disease is increasing, particularly at the geographical limits of the vector distribution. Our project aimed to determine whether this was true for the risk of Lyme borreliosis in Ireland which is the western-most limit of Ixodes ricinus, the European vector of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. The availability of a historical data set of tick infection rates compiled in the 1990s represented a unique opportunity as it provided a baseline against which current data could be compared.

Extraction of Protein from Four Different Seaweeds Using Three Different Physical Pre-Treatment Strategies.

Seaweeds are a rich source of protein and can contain up to 47% on the dry weight basis. It is challenging to extract proteins from the raw biomass of seaweed due to resilient cell-wall complexes. Four species of macroalgae were used in this study-two brown, and , and two red, and .

Impacts of land management practices on blue carbon stocks and greenhouse gas fluxes in coastal ecosystems-A meta-analysis.

Global recognition of climate change and its predicted consequences has created the need for practical management strategies for increasing the ability of natural ecosystems to capture and store atmospheric carbon. Mangrove forests, saltmarshes and seagrass meadows, referred to as blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs), are hotspots of atmospheric CO storage due to their capacity to sequester carbon at a far higher rate than terrestrial forests. Despite increased effort to understand the mechanisms underpinning blue carbon fluxes, there has been little synthesis of how management activities influence carbon stocks and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in BCEs.

Pre-settlement coral-reef fish larvae respond to magnetic field changes during the day.

Observations of coral-reef fish larvae have revealed remarkably consistent orientation behaviour while swimming offshore, requiring large-scale orientation cues. However, the mechanisms underlying this behaviour are still being investigated. One potential large-scale cue for orientation is the Earth's geomagnetic field.

Ticks and Tick-borne diseases in Ireland.

Throughout Europe interest in tick-borne agents is increasing, particularly with regard to those that can cause human disease. The reason for this is the apparent rise in the incidence of many tick-borne diseases (TBD's). While there has never been a national survey of ticks or TBD's in Ireland, the trend here appears to be the reverse with a decline in the incidence of some agents seemingly associated with decreasing tick numbers particularly on agricultural land.

Sediment pollution impacts sensory ability and performance of settling coral-reef fish.

Marine organisms are under threat globally from a suite of anthropogenic sources, but the current emphasis on global climate change has deflected the focus from local impacts. While the effect of increased sedimentation on the settlement of coral species is well studied, little is known about the impact on larval fish. Here, the effect of a laterite "red soil" sediment pollutant on settlement behaviour and post-settlement performance of reef fish was tested.

Do human activities influence survival and orientation abilities of larval fishes in the ocean?

The larval stages of most marine fishes spend days to weeks in the pelagic environment, where they must find food and avoid predators in order to survive. Some fish only spend part of their life history in the pelagic environment before returning to their adult habitat, for example, a coral reef. The sensory systems of larval fish develop rapidly during the first few days of their lives, and here we concentrate on the various sensory cues the fish have available to them for survival in the pelagic environment.

Comparison of GC stationary phases for the separation of fatty acid methyl esters in biodiesel fuels.

The fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) content of biodiesel fuels has traditionally been determined using gas chromatography with a polar stationary phase. In this study, a direct comparison of the separation of FAMEs present in various biodiesel samples on three polar stationary phases and one moderately polar stationary phase (with comparable column dimensions) was performed. Retention on each column was based on solubility in and polarity of the phase.